Deputy Foreign Minister: The brain drain in Greece has slowed

Participating in the annual Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia on Tuesday, in an event on “Diaspora and Brain Drain”, Deputy Foreign Minister Terens Quick outlined the measures taken by the Greek government to support the Greek language around the world and emphasised its importance.

“We have the language that has depicted the most important values in words and we must support and promote them. The words democracy, dialogue and Europe are Greek. Also Greek is the word diaspora that we have gathered here to discuss,” he said in his address to the forum, being held at the level of foreign ministers.

According to a foreign ministry announcement, Quick noted that Greece has appointed over 700 teachers all over the world, while there are Greek communities that hire teachers either from Greece or from children of Greek descent that have studied Greek in the country they reside.

On the issue of brain drain, the minister noted that a large number of young people with extremely good degrees in many fields of study had left Greece during the years of crisis.

“Now that Greece is returning to growth and is finding its balance again outside the memoranda, a series of plans will be launched, mostly by the Economy and Development Ministry, to ensure that these young Greeks do not lose contact with their country. He said the aim was for these young people to stay in professional contact with their country “in synergies that will support the opening of new job positions in Greece and a strong possibility of repatriation.” He also added that the huge brain drain observed in Greece during the first five years of the crisis has now slowed.

“We have set the country’s economy back on growth track in order to create jobs, not only to stop the young people from leaving but so that we also have returns. This is a goal that we will succeed in,” he added.

The Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA) (Greek: Αθηναϊκό-Μακεδονικό Πρακτορείο Ειδήσεων, AΜΠΕ) is a Greece-based news service. It is a public entity anonymous company. It was founded in 2008 as the Athens News Agency - Macedonian Press Agency S.A. (ANA-MPA SA), under a presidential decree which merged the Athens News Agency (ANA SA) and the Macedonian Press Agency (MPA SA).